RE: GMO Toxins and Pregnant Women
December 19, 2011 at 4:43 pm
(This post was last modified: December 19, 2011 at 4:52 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Absolutely, I failed to specify "conventional ag done right and not hijacked by an industry rep and his buddies in congress." Well reminded, thank you. I have the same opinion of the organic movement. Legitimate concerns, legitimate product, garbage activists tarnishing the whole thing with mostly good intentions (not to say there aren't some hucksters around, of course).
The antibiotics are a product of corn-as-feed in cattle btw. A situation brought about as much by subsidy and politics as science. The conditions (though inhumane by some standards) are usually incredibly "sanitary" as a result of production concerns. That's in this country, not that we get our food from our own farms or anything, and I won't even begin to defend farms in the shitholes we import some of our food from. People don't always live up to the standards, but corruption actually isn't the rule in Ag. Just so happens that cattle fed corn get incredibly sick. They also become vessels for pathogens which they would not normally encounter or harbor and which we can actually become a host for. Milking cows get treatment to prevent mastitis due to excessive milking. It's an issue of literally not being able to provide the product at all without the antibiotics. Not an ideal siuation. The "end of the day" bit was more my frustration on the immediacy and urgency of our need to eat, and how it doesn't leave us time to really think these things through the way we'd like. We've done some foolish things in the name of ag since we started, but we'd be fucked without it. Double edged sword. I probably do lean towards the pragmatic when it comes to ag because ag is primarily a pragmatic solution. As you've said, nowhere near ideal or foolproof.
Summer, help me out, Michael Pollan write a fantastic book about this (antibiotics and livestock, specifically cattle)
The antibiotics are a product of corn-as-feed in cattle btw. A situation brought about as much by subsidy and politics as science. The conditions (though inhumane by some standards) are usually incredibly "sanitary" as a result of production concerns. That's in this country, not that we get our food from our own farms or anything, and I won't even begin to defend farms in the shitholes we import some of our food from. People don't always live up to the standards, but corruption actually isn't the rule in Ag. Just so happens that cattle fed corn get incredibly sick. They also become vessels for pathogens which they would not normally encounter or harbor and which we can actually become a host for. Milking cows get treatment to prevent mastitis due to excessive milking. It's an issue of literally not being able to provide the product at all without the antibiotics. Not an ideal siuation. The "end of the day" bit was more my frustration on the immediacy and urgency of our need to eat, and how it doesn't leave us time to really think these things through the way we'd like. We've done some foolish things in the name of ag since we started, but we'd be fucked without it. Double edged sword. I probably do lean towards the pragmatic when it comes to ag because ag is primarily a pragmatic solution. As you've said, nowhere near ideal or foolproof.
Summer, help me out, Michael Pollan write a fantastic book about this (antibiotics and livestock, specifically cattle)
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